no more paper, no more books, no more librarian dirty looks?

even in noble institutions, at some point, there comes a sticky wicket . . . profit. profitability. profit center. revenue generation. yes, even libraries.

over on the tele-read blog, 'joanna' writes about 'another e-advantage,' no more lost library books.

she tells of her encounter with her previous local library over a 'lost' book. she claims (is sure of it) that it was returned. the library says otherwise (isn't that always the way). and now she has been billed $18. whereas, when she 'borrows' e-books, they are downloaded to her computer, read (or not) and then, 'poof, be gone,' they are gone. nothing to track, nothing to search for, nothing to return to the library (late or otherwise).

this tale of woe led me to think of other things as well, namely overdue fines. if there is no physical book to check out and/or to lose, how will that affect the income of libraries? do fines/replacement fees make up a significant amount of revenue for libraries? at the usual rate of $0.10/day, it doesn't seem like it would, but multiplied by thousands of pages and multiple branches . . .? and wouldn't it also depend on the number of scofflaws out there? are there more late book turner-inners in des moines than dubuque?

and why won't patrons renew??? it's so easy and you can usually do it online. at the most it would take a phone call to the branch. then that gives you time to find that book that you absolutely, positively know you turned back in (wink wink).

my affair with the physical book continues

i've tried to leave several times. that new, flashy (well, matte white finished) kindle calls and calls. leaves messages. beckons with it's potential. and yet, i keep running back to . . . the physical book.

i came across this in my daily trawling of that darn internet thing. it's an article on the millions website, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite book-related websites. it compares the book covers of US and UK releases. very interesting. i even played a little game comparing which one i liked better with the columnist's choices. and then, of course, i started thinking of the books i've bought over the years simply based on their covers. or the blurb on the back. or the synopsis on the inside cover. yea, i know, you can get that from the online description but it's just . . . not. . . quite . . . the . . . same. [sigh]

and then i found another article on the millions website. this time about, guess what? deckled edge pages. which, faithful reader, you will recall i mentioned in my previous post, cutting edge vs. deckle edge. yes FAITHFUL reader, you DID read my last post, didn't you? i'm sure you did - i apologize for that last outburst.

so, maybe i'm not ready to go gently into that good night of e-books and e-readers. not yet, anyway. not when there are so many talented artists out there who are giving us reasons to open a book, simply by illustrating it on a book cover. and speaking of illustrating, what about all those pictures books out there with illustrators like loren long and jerry pinckney, and tasha tudor and, and, and . . .

hey, sounds like the makings of another blog posting. until then . . .

happy reading . . . no matter the format.

Deckle Edge vs. Cutting Edge

so, in my quest to overwhelm myself with reading materials, i found yet another book i want to read. it's titled the infinities and the author is john banville. standard contemporary fiction, nothing out of the ordinary. and, since i've picked up a bad habit i dropped last year of buying books, i was actually thinking of purchasing said book. i did a price comparison, found the cheapest version but then i decided to check out the amazon kindle edition to see if it was $9.99. the book comparison website i used did not include the kindle edition in it's results. hmph. so off i went on an adventure and lo, and behold, i came across not one but TWO surprises. the first was that the kindle edition of the infinities was NOT, i repeat NOT, $9.99 but a WHOPPING [insert sarcasm here] THIRTEEN DOLLARS AND SIXTY-FIVE CENTS!!!!! outrageous!!! okay, maybe not so outrageous, but amazon has conditioned me to expect $9.99 and i want $9.99. somebody start a petition, stat.

but the second surprise is more surprising than the first surprise. the second surprise is that i paused while thinking about my purchase because the hardcover of the infinities comes with deckle-edge pages. oooooooh, shivers just went up me spine. you know, deckle edge? the fancy little thing they do on the edges of paper to make it look old and handmade and not machine-cut? and that reminded me of one of the physical reasons why i like reading. it also made me wonder if people got their unmentionables in a bunch when machine-cut pages came out. did it de-personalize the book? those sharp machine-cut pages can give you a nasty papercut. okay, okay, but i was just wonderin'

oh, i don't know which one i'm gonna get. knowing me, i'll probably get it from the library. but it did give me pause.

that's all. go away. nothing more to read here. what? can't you go for one post without a link? oh, okay, fine. how about this story on the future of books. printed on the kansan.com website and written by anna sobering, it sums up this post pretty well.

happy reading . . . no matter the format!